Does anyone have any photos comparing the different versions ….....

@calvinhobbesliker:

Did Spring 1942 introduce defenseless transports?

AA50

Spring 1942 was basically A&A Revised played with AA50 rules.  1 or 2 Battleships and/or Destroyers were changed to the new Cruiser piece, but otherwise the set up was identical.

@docfav7:

Global is going to be the way to go.  No doubt.  However, if time is a concern, Spring 1942 is still a great option.  We play this on Monday nights.  A couple of things though.  GET RID OF THE BOARD!  Download IL’s map and get it printed somewhere.  This is a must.  #2 get an extra set of money.  Poker chips, old style money, whatever.  Those 2 things alone make 1942 version worth playing.

Try it first. So many people dis the '42 board, when it is perfectly playable. Definitely try playing on it and see if you like it before spending a bunch of money to get a new one printed.

Personally waiting for FMG to finish with their sculpts and making my own AA50 game with the map for IL.

A whole lot cheaper and much nicer.

The Game of Axis and Allies is about making a mathematical machine of probabilities that beats someone elses.  That includes the territories you take, the positions your units are in, the options they have, and the IPC’s you are making.

This game IS about the Economics.

Excellent post Umrmeche, combine this type of play, with a General focus of making sure you are constantly giving oppurtunites to take advantage of your opponents and the mistakes they make, and you’ve got a winning strategy 80% of the time :P

You have to remember, lots of People give up before their capital ever falls, and the logisitics of making that happen anyways, are mostly bent on the Economics of the Situation.

Consider this thinking when you are buying your units too.

Well, you guys might be missing something here.  You do not need to agree that the game is imbalanced, or have a consensus on what bid is necessary to balance it, to have a consensus on what I am talking about.
Example: Person A may think the game is already balanced and that a bid is not necessary, Person B thinks an Allied bid of 6 ipcs is needed when you play with NOs, and Person C is nutty and thinks that 21 ipcs are needed for the allies with NOs.  But all of these three people may in fact agree that a bid of 2 infantry in europe would be equivalent to a bid of 2 naval warships off the coast of america.
Agreeing on what to do to balance the game is not a pre-requisite to agreeing on certain bids types being equivalent.

Or, to think about it in a different way, lets think of this as a Ratio.
I’m just going to throw this out there, but lets say you have a Bid of X.
If you use it on the “front line” in either Europe or Africa/MiddleEast, then all you get is X.
If you use it not on the front line in Europe/Africa/MiddleEast, or you use it on the front line in China, then you get X1.5
If you use it not on the front line in China, or you use it in the Atlantic on Navy, UK main island Air/Land, then you get X2
If you use it on Pacific navy, or American Continent Land/Air, then you get X*2.5.

Now, as you can see, if you think X should be zero, then they all end up as zero.  If you think X should be 6, then you could either get 2 europe/egypt inf, or 3 chinese inf, or a cruiser in the atlantic, or a DD + a sub in the pacific.  If you think X should be 10, etc, etc.

3 hours for a game of Axis and Allies?  lol

Expect at least 4-5 hours, plus setup time.  Some of the variants are only about 3 hours or less, though.

ditto.

That looks pretty sweet!